Marcus Ericsson was all over the back of Pato O’Ward’s No. 5 car in the closing laps of a long IndyCar season opener, and the latest flub of the day led to Ericsson moving into the lead.
O’Ward’s car had an issue, and it slowed just enough to allow the Chip Ganassi Racing driver to get by.
“That’s racing,” Ericsson said on the NBC broadcast. “I feel bad for Pato having an issue, but that’s racing – you need to get to the line. We were fast all day and we were hunting (O’Ward) down.”
MARCUS ERICSSON WINS IN ST PETERSBURG@AlwaysRaceDay #FirestoneGP pic.twitter.com/NRDTeMDxhM
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthewCFB) March 5, 2023
The win becomes Ericsson’s fourth career IndyCar victory and is his third career win on a street course.
Following the race, he made sure to make note of the finish to start the season and roll off of his Indianapolis 500 winning year.
“I think people forget us in some conversations as well when talking about the championship,” Ericsson said on the broadcast. “We’re here to win. We won the 500 last year and we’ll be here for a long time.”
The pair of drivers were two of the bigger names left in the race that late, as a multitude of contenders were taken out by wild accidents throughout the race.
It started on the opening lap, where bottleneck traffic forced a multi-car pileup that saw rookie Benjamin Pedersen sending Devlin DeFrancesco up and into the air.
Kyle Kirkwood goes flying. A wild day in #IndyCar action. #FirestoneGP pic.twitter.com/flE4TgHsZd
— Always Race Day (@AlwaysRaceDay) March 5, 2023
Later on, Colton Herta called Will Power a ‘bit of an ass’ after a wreck that ended his day and delivered a penalty to Power.
Colton Herta vs. Will Power is your first IndyCar beef of the year.
🎥 @IndyCar pic.twitter.com/A2q0tC5LT7
— Always Race Day (@AlwaysRaceDay) March 5, 2023
Nonetheless, Power was able to make it back to the top 10 finishing P7.
The most stunning collision of the day came from the top two cars on the track in Scott McLaughlin and Romain Grosjean.
The former F1 driver in Grosjean gunned for a pass around McLaughlin that would have essentially solidified the win for him, however, it ended up being enough to take both cars out of contention.
Romain Grosjean and Scott McLaughlin!
The leaders bring out the caution in the #FirestoneGP #IndyCar
🎥 @MrMatthewCFB pic.twitter.com/Pi5fcMs8mF
— Always Race Day (@AlwaysRaceDay) March 5, 2023
The series will return to the track after a few off weeks, racing its second event at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, April 2 on NBC.
NTT IndyCar Series results
Firestone Grand Prix
Streets of St. Petersburg
Sun. March 5, 2023
1. Marcus Ericsson
2. Pato O’Ward
3. Scott Dixon
4. Alexander Rossi
5. Callum Ilott
6. Graham Rahal
7. Will Power
8. Alex Palou
9. Christian Lundgaard
10. David Malukas
11. Marcus Armstrong
12. Agustin Canapino
13. Scott McLaughlin
14. Conor Daly
15. Kyle Kirkwood
16. Sting Ray Robb
17. Josef Newgarden
18. Romain Grosjean
19. Felix Rosenqvist
20. Colton Herta
21. Rinus VeeKay
22. Jack Harvey
23. Helio Castroneves
24. Santino Ferrucci
25. Devlin DeFrancesco
26. Simon Pagenaud
27. Benjamin Pedersen
